Mind Control
by AlterEgox5
Summary: The Doctor and his companion Nick - short for Nikki - decide to take a relaxing trip to a planet, they find themselves in the grip of one of the Time Lords' deadliest enemies - and it's not the Daleks.
1. Chapter 1

**Mind Control**

The TARDIS suddenly lurched to a stop, nearly throwing Nick off her feet. She clung to the control panel and waited for the vibrations to subside. The Doctor looked a little perturbed at the abrupt halt, but a second later a smile formed on his face. Either that was a normal reaction for him or he was good at shrugging things off. There were times when she still couldn't tell.

"Here we are, Alog-Placoon. Otherwise known as Plat."

Nick laughed at him. She couldn't help it, just the way he announced it with that goofy look on his face, the amusement was contagious. He flipped a few levers.

"So what's this place like?" Nick asked, eyeing the door.

"Oh, it's lovely! Trees the size of skyscrapers. Lemon-lime grasses as far as the eye can see. Big, bright sun and beautiful blazing blue skies stretching over the horizon. Wonderful place for a picnic."

She laughed again and offered her arm once he was close enough. "Shall we?"

He grinned at linked arms with her. "We shall!"

The TARDIS door folded open and they stepped out.

"Whoa." Nick gazed around, shocked to find herself in a place the complete opposite of the Doctor's description. "This doesn't look like a planet."

Rusted metal surrounded them in a cramped space full of steam hissing vents and piping. Dim lighting made it difficult to see and gave everything an ominous air. Nick shifted closer to the Doctor and ventured a look at his face. At once she knew something was wrong—and even he didn't know what it was.

"This shouldn't be here," he said, his brow furrowed and a deep frown set in his face. "I've been to Plat before—this isn't right."

Nick nibbled her lip in thought. "You've been here before, but have you been here at this time?"

She wanted to be helpful and began to think it was s fruitless question when he looked down at her, a grin on his face.

"I think you're the first person to have ever asked me that!"

She beamed at him, feeling smart and special. The Doctor examined their surroundings.

"Truth is, no, I haven't been here at this point in time before, which is why I chose now to go." He tilted his head toward her. "Didn't want to bump into myself. Still, guess I shouldn't always expect a planet to be where I left it. After all, nothing lasts forever." His last words trailed off, as though he'd just remembered something precious he had lost in time. Nick wondered what it was, but figured it might be best to keep him in the present—so to speak.

"Any ideas on what this place is then?"

He puckered his lips slightly. "Looks to me like a hallway."

She laughed and pushed him. "Full of jokes today aren't you? I can _see_ it's a hallway, but in what? I mean, maybe we are on Plat, but just inside a building."

The troubled look returned to his face. "There are no buildings on Plat."

"Ah," Nick said, feeling a little saucy, "there were no buildings on the planet the last time you visited."

"I'd give you points for that except no one lives here."

"Until now."

"Will you stop that?" The amusement in his voice belied the order. "It shouldn't matter when I come here—or when we come here—Plat's long since been designated as a universally protected planet."

Nick considered saying, "Maybe it's not anymore," but let it go. Instead she went with, "Then I suppose you're right and something's wrong."

He made a little "Mm" sound. She wondered if he planned on walking around to investigate. Usually he did and usually it got them into trouble. But that didn't bother her. How could it be possible to travel time and space and not bump into trouble? Besides, there had been plenty of wonderful things to experience and magnificent places to see. The trouble was a small price to play and completely worth it.

"We're not going to look around?" she asked after several minutes. The way the Doctor stood there, unmoving, looking almost angry made her unsure whether or not it was a safe question to ask. With all the rusted metal and dim lighting and steam columns, it wasn't a place she'd be too excited to check out. A sudden desire to get back into the TARDIS and drag the Doctor struck her. The Doctor was thinking way too much about this place, he had gone much too long without moving and she caught glimpses of something threatening behind his eyes. She shivered.

_Bad. Something very bad is here. We should just leave_. She spoke softly, "Doctor? Doctor, let's just go. We can always rewind back a bit and find out, can't we?"

The loud clang of heavy footsteps on metal caught their attention. Both of them froze, Nick in the middle of settling her hand on the Doctor's arm. Out of a branching hallway, a hand and arm swung forward. Nick saw irregular splotches of black crawling up the arm before the Doctor dove to the left, dragging her with.

He crouched low, his hands on her shoulders. Nick could feel the heavy pulse of his two hearts through his palms. She desperately wanted to know what was going on, but knew enough about traveling with him to know now would be the worst time to speak. Her instincts had been right—they should have left.

"Nnn?" A woman's voice floated down to them. "What's this?" She sounded perfectly normal—cheerful even—but it made Nick want to throw up. The Doctor squeezed her shoulders painfully and she knew he felt the same way. She reached back to touch his fingers.

"Well, well, well, what have I got here? A silly Chameleon circuit." The woman, or whatever it was, sounded excited, as though she'd just found something interesting. Nick's heart skipped a beat. _The TARDIS_.

The Doctor started tugging on her shirt and she turned to see him cramming himself into some sort of duct. Moving as silently as possible over the metal, she crept in after him and replaced the grate he'd taken off.

"Come out little Time Lord, I know you're here! I have your little box!"

The Doctor shuffled down the duct, Nick following as quickly as she should. Her hair began to stick to her face from the steam and her shirt felt wet against her skin. A sudden slam behind her almost made her gasp, but she held it in and kept after the Doctor. Finally he emerged into another room and once she secured the grate, Nick crept up to him.

"What was that?" she hissed, frantic to know what made that thing so bad they'd gotten out of there as fast as possible, but keeping her voice down in case the place was rigged with recording devices and speakers. He didn't answer right away and suddenly it hit her—he was _afraid._ Completely shaken up. She'd seen him scared before, but it was always in a concerned, this-might-not-work way, never a terrified couldn't-even-answer-her way.

"Doctor!" She snatched the front of his jacket and jerked him toward her. "_What was that?_"

He seemed to come back to himself and gently pulled her hands from his coat. He looked directly into her eyes.

"That," he said the word with a vehemence that surprised her, "was—is—a Paresh. As bad as the Daleks, every one of them. They could have been worse than the Daleks if they ever managed to get together properly. But they're too vicious, too territorial, and thankfully it's kept them from every amassing any power."

"But what's so horrible about it? How did it know you?" She stared back, mesmerized by those unblinking eyes.

"Paresh were known to kidnap Time Lords and use them like puppets, building weapons and tampering with time events."

"How?"

"They know how to take control of a Time Lord's brain."

_Oh God. Very, very bad. _She already knew what he was telling her without having to say it: _If I'm captured, it might get control of me._

"There was always a handful of us," he continued, "sent to times where Paresh messed with things. Had to set it straight and destroy them." For the first time he looked around the room they were in.

"So what's this tone doing on Plat? It's uninhabited right? What's there to mess with?"

"She's not on Plat. If she's here, Plat is gone. That means we're on her ship."

"Wait, what do you mean Plat is _gone_?"

The Doctor paused in his room examination. "Think of a pyrotechnician that really, really loves his job. Now multiply that by one hundred trillion and take away his respect for life and you're nearing the Paresh mindset. They love to watch planets explode, they love the destruction. Doesn't matter if the planet is inhabited, uninhabited, gas giant, frozen rock, with rings, without rings, one moon, two moons, no moon, pink, blue, or black—if it looks like it would make a pretty explosion, they'll find a way to do it."

"Oh my god."

"And they'll use the energy to power their ships and move to another planet."

Silence fell over them for a moment.

"What did you do with the Time Lords you got back?"

The Doctor grew increasingly agitated with their location, but he kept talking. "We had a place for them where they could sit comfortably the rest of their lives. We had to execute the Paresh to keep them from calling the Time Lord for escape or to do other damage. Some eventually came out of it, others…" He let his voice trail off. Nick knew. _They never came back. Puppets with cut strings the rest of their lives_.

"So we need to get you out of here," she said. "Can't we go back through the duct?"

"No, that noise earlier was a sealout door, no doubt deadlocked. We're cut off from the TARDIS. We'll have to come up with another route that inevitably leads to the control panel for those doors. Then I can open the door."

"But she'll be waiting there for you, won't she?"

He stared at her. "Yes."

"My little Time Lord!" Nick jumped from the sudden intercom announcement. "Where have you gone?" The Paresh's sickly-sweet voice made her skin crawl. "I won't hurt you—I have your little time travel machine. Come here and I can give it back to you."

Again, Nick felt nausea rear its head in listening to the Paresh, but to her shock it was the Doctor that suddenly doubled over and threw up.

"Doctor! Doctor, are you okay?" Panic replaced the nausea, but she ignored it, holding the Doctor's shoulder with one hand and rubbing his back with the other.

"Yes," he said, breathing heavily. He wiped his mouth on the back of his sleeve. "Yes, I'm all right. Paresh just have this underlying frequency in their voices that makes us sick is all."

"Here—here, sit down. We can think this through. She can wait. Let's just take this one step at a time."

She sat him down on a block of metal and stood close, gently stroking the back of his head. Even though he claimed to be okay, she knew he was far from it. The way he had his arms wrapped around her waist and his head pressed against her stomach told her his reaction to the Paresh's voice shook him up more than he wanted to admit. Had he ever faced a Paresh before? He had definitely seen the damaged Time Lords, she didn't doubt that. It was as though suddenly he became a little boy, lost and afraid. Though that worried a part of her, it made the rest of her even more determined. She'd made sure he got out of here safely, no matter what.

"All right." She swept her fingers though his already tousled hair. "There's a door in here we can get out of. How likely is it that it leads to the control room?"

"Very unlikely." His voice was slightly muffled against her stomach.

"Come on Time Lord!" the Paresh suddenly demanded, her voice blaring through the ship's speakers. "If you don't show yourself, I'll have to come looking for you."

Nick felt his hands tense against her back. It unnerved her to see him so freaked out and she hated the Paresh for doing this to him.

"Okay, she doesn't know there's two of us," she said in an effort to get him focused. "I could find some way or luring her away from the control panel once we get there. Do Paresh eat humans?"

"No."

"Are they faster than humans?"

"No."

"Is this a Paresh ship or did she steal it?"

"Probably something she stole or put together from poor scrap." His voice gained some of its sureness back.

"Do the ducts run throughout the ship?"

"It's very likely. She probably needs it to help with all the venting."

"So if worse comes to worst, I'll give into a duct and scramble around until I get back to you. I only saw her arm, but it looked pretty fat to me." A shadow of a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Are Paresh fat?"

He paused. "You know, they usually are, yeah."

"So, um, do you think she could be angry if I told her she was a fat ass?"

A snicker escaped him. Finally he looked up at her, a half grin on his face. "I'll bet she would be. I don't recommend doing that."

Nick shrugged, feigning indifference. "She's a fat ass and the thought of her makes people throw up. I'll tell her its no wonder she's stuck alone on this piece of junk she calls a ship. That's why she's not coming after us yet—she's too busy being a slob eating chips and watching TV."

This time he laughed and playfully slapped her arm. "There is no TV out here."

"Space TV then. Whatever." They both knew she was being silly to lighten the mood, but it still managed to work.

"You're ridiculous," he said.

"I'm a lot of things. Look," she grew serious and knelt in front of him, taking his face in her hands, "we've been in worse situations than this. Remember the R-39 Vortex? The Lansing machines? I almost got eaten by a galfegor a couple of months ago! We can make it out of here just fine. There's only one of her, right? No minions, no deathtraps?" He nodded. "I can get her to come after me first—she might think I'm a Time Lord. You did have female Time Lords right?"

The corner of his mouth curved up. "Time Ladies."

She blinked. "What?"

"Time Lords and Time Ladies."

She marveled at how much she still didn't know about him. "Then there you go. We can do this."

They stared at each other for a few moments until the Doctor spoke. "Nikki, in case she does managed to capture me—"

"You are you," she told him in a firm tone. "She can't take complete control of your mind, I don't care how good Paresh are supposed to be. You said yourself Time Lords have come out of it. If anything happens, you won't lose to her. I know you won't. Because you're smarter—and you're the Doctor. Just keep remembering that."

She leaned forward and kissed his forehead, letting her lips linger there like a seal of her trust in him.

The moment she pulled away and stood, the Doctor jumped up, newfound determination emanating from him.

"You're right. There's nothing more at stake here than you and I! Wait, that didn't come out right."

Nick grinned, glad to see him back to himself once again.

"All right Time Lord," announced the Paresh, "I'm coming for you."

The Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the corner above Nick, zapping the speaker into silence. "Now, if I can just get into a panel here…" He wrenched open a slab of metal and shuffled through a mass of wires. "Why, hello…"

"What is it?"

He spun around to show her a tiny screen inlaid into the wall beyond the wires. His excitement saturated the room.

"Let me guess—she just used that as a spare piece but you can hack into it and get the ship's layout?"

He cocked his head. "Absolutely."

She squeezed in beside him to peer at the screen. It took him several more tries with the screwdriver and plenty of rewiring to finally get a fuzzy picture of the ship's schematics.

"Right, so I'm willing to bet we're here and the TARDIS is in this compartment here. The number of vents and doorways matches up. This should be the control room," he tapped a larger empty space in the middle of the ship. He looked at Nick. "Do you really want to do this?"

"You have a better idea, babe?"

He stared at her. "Babe?"

"What?"

"We've been together over three years now and never once have you called me 'Babe.'"

She felt herself blush. "Don't read into it too much. It's just a term of endearment I use with my guy friends."

A tiny, entertained smirk remained on his face. "Well, as for having a better idea, no, I can't say I do at the moment."

"Okay, then where am I going?"

"We'll make our way here," he pointed at the control room, "and you lure her this way. Once you've gone, I'll get in and unlock the door blocking the TARDIS. Take the ducts back around to get into this room and head back the way we came. I'll seal off as many doors as I can to keep her in one spot or at the very least slow her down. Once you're back at the TARDIS, hop in and we'll head off to talk to the Head of the UPPA."

"UPPA?"

"Universal Planet Protection Agency."

"Ah. Should have known. That's it then?"

"That's it."

"See? I told you we'd figure it out." She clapped him on the shoulder and flashed him a grin. "Let's do it."

The two stepped through each door he opened, taking care to be as quiet as possible. The place was uncomfortably maze-like, but Nick had memorized exactly where she needed to go once they reached the control room. Piece of cake. She worked taunts against the Paresh into her head.

"Okay," the Doctor said, "she should be behind this door. Are you ready?"

"Ready." She winked at him. "Babe."

Without warning, the door slid up and Nick found herself face to face with the Paresh. Though relatively humanoid, the dark splotches dotted pale bulges of fat flesh. It had the face of a young woman—and yet it was horribly wrong. Cute blond curls clashed with a beak-like nose. A perky smile was plastered to her face, but it was drowned out by the pale green eyes with cattish slits in the center.

"Hello," the Paresh said as though she truly was glad to see Nick standing before her, and Nick realized in this situation, she probably was. Then the Paresh looked over at the Doctor.

"I can't close the door!" he shouted as he shoved his screwdriver back into its pocket. "Run!"

The Paresh stepped forward and reached for Nick, but she was already running after the Doctor. The door behind the Paresh slid shut, but when Nick looked back again, the Paresh was nowhere to be seen.

"Wait, wait!" She yanked on the back of the Doctor's jacket. "She's gone!"

They stopped and stared at the place the Paresh had stood mere seconds ago.

"Oh no," the Doctor said, something dreadful dawning on him. Nick spun to ask him what and gasped. The Paresh was right behind him.

"Hello Time Lord."

Nick grabbed the Doctor's jacket again and heaved him back. He stumbled behind her, caught off guard by her sudden move. Nick snatched up a pipe from the ground and swung it at the Paresh, who moved back several steps.

"I'm the Time Lord, not him," she said, holding the pipe like a sword.

"Of course you are." The Paresh's nostril's flared.

"You leave him alone or I'll smash your ugly face in." Nick hoped the Doctor was making his way to the door behind them.

"I'm sure you will," said the Paresh, her words sugary-sweet, like an adult humoring a child.

_Bitch!_ Nick swung the pipe again but to her surprise the Paresh caught it with ease and yanked it from her hands. It rang out against the ground. Behind her the sound of the Doctor's screwdriver could be heard.

"Oh no you don't!" the Paresh snapped. A door slammed down between Nick and the Doctor, a red light appearing around the Paresh before she vanished.

_What the…?_ Nick spun to stare at the door, horrified. _Oh God, she can teleport!_ She grabbed the pipe again and began hammering at the door.


	2. Chapter 2

"Doctor!"

He could hear Nick's muffled cries amidst the dull clangs of the pipe against the door.

The Paresh stood in front of it. The Doctor cursed himself. Teleportation device—why hadn't he thought of that? _Because the Paresh aren't smart enough to develop that kind of technology_, he thought, answering his own question.

"Hmm." She glanced back at the door. "Doctor, are you? You know, the last one I had called himself the Caryani, if I can recall correctly."

Anger and desolation flashed through him. "Where is he? He's the one that made the teleporter for you, isn't he?"

"Indeed, he did, and many other things as well. But I lost him ages ago. I neglected to remove him from a planet before it went up. I was so sad to have lost him, but it made such a pretty display as it broke apart."

The Doctor ground his teeth together and forced back the nausea churning in his stomach. "When did you lose him?"

"Oh I don't know. A little bit after your ridiculous Time War I suppose. Haven't been able to find another one of you since."

A predatory smile grew over her face. On the other side of the door there was a loud smash and then a wrenching noise.

"Little spat smashed the controls," the Paresh muttered, looking at the door. "What a pet you have. She's trying to force the door open. No matter. She won't be able to do anything by the time I'm finished with you." She turned her eyes on him. The green glittered and danced in the light as she walked toward him.

He backed against the other door, options flying through his mind. But he was weaponless, idealess, the door was deadlocked. He was going to end up like all those other Time Lords in the asylum on Gallifrey.

The pipe clattered beyond the door and he heard Nick yell at him: "Doctor! You're smarter than her! You'll always be you! Remember that!"

Fear stabbed his heart, not for himself, but for Nick. He stared straight into the Paresh's flickering eyes.

"What will you do to her?"

"She can be my new toy. I had my last Time Lord create some nerve-cepter bonds for me that I've been sure to keep every time I needed to move.

The Doctor's eyes grew wide with horror even as his mind seemed to go fuzzy. His shout was for both of them—his own weakness and the torment of knowing what lay ahead for Nick.

Nick heard the Doctor yell an her breath caught in her throat. Then she banged on the door with her fists and open palms, bruising them on the metal.

"Doctor! Stay strong! Stay with me!"

Suddenly an idea came to her like a slap in the face. _The vents!_ She dove to the ground and yanked the grating off the wall, pulling the pipe after her just in case. She heard him shout a few more times and then all was silent. She scrambled through the vents, hoping to reach either the area the Doctor was locked into or the control room. Sliding right, she saw an area ahead glowing in blue. She kicked the panel free and climbed out, only to see the Paresh standing ten yards to her right, the Doctor at her side. Nick sucked in a breath and gripped the pipe until her knuckled went white.

His face was blank, devoid of any emotion—empty. A film covered his eyes, pale and pushing back the color that always showed his spark for life. What had she done to him? He just stood there, staring at…at nothing. She'd wiped him clean! Taken over his mind! This couldn't be him—not her Doctor. Not the one she had pretended to marry on Dralacott-6. Not the Doctor that had taken a raspberry pie directly in the face during that massive pie fight in 1965. Not the one she had held less than an hour ago.

"Doctor! Doctor! _Doctor!_" She had to snap him out of it. He had to wake up if they were going to make it out alive. Maybe if she shook him, slapped his face, maybe that would help.

"It's no use darling," that silky, deadly voice said. "He's mine now. I've overridden the electronic synapses in his cortex. He won't do a thing for you."

"Give him back," she said, doing everything she could to keep her voice steady. She brandished the pipe. _See if she can take it from me this time!_

"Well now," said the Paresh, saccharine.

"GIVE HIM BACK! You monster!"

The Paresh's smiling face dropped into one of darkness. "I think not."

Nick had anticipated the Paresh's move and just as she disappeared, Nick spun around, swinging the pipe and heard a loud thunk as it slammed into the side of the Paresh's skull. She howled and staggered back, putting a hand to the area, which began to leak a brown liquid. She glared at Nick and disappeared, reappearing behind the Doctor.

"You foul little creature! Let's see how you do against your precious Time Lord! Won't harm him, will you?" She jabbed the Doctor in the back. "You! Get her!"

The Doctor walked toward Nick. She backed up, but held the pipe ready.

"Don't do this Doctor," she said. "I know you're still in there, whatever she's done. It can't last forever." He didn't stop. "All right!" _Maybe this will wake him up, and if it doesn't, maybe it'll knock him out and then I can take out the Paresh and then find some way to open the doors and drag him into the TARDIS. Don't be angry with me later, Doctor!_

She swung at his head, but to her surprise he ducked and made a grab for her. She managed to dance away, brought the pipe around again, but he ducked once more. This time he looped an arm around her midsection and swung himself around so he stood behind her, fumbling with her hands and arms in an attempt to get the pipe away from her. Animal panic surged through her—he fought with no change in his expression at all, but he was still much stronger than her. _Damn you and your two hearts!_ She thrust the end of the pipe back and struck him hard in the ribs before flinging her head back to his him on the nose. But neither attack stopped him and he had a firm grip on the pipe now. Tears of frustration sprang to her eyes as she struggled against him. With one of her hands tangled in one of his, he used the other to jerk the pipe free and it clattered to the ground. Nick bent over and tried to throw him over her shoulder, but she didn't have a good enough grip and he hauled her back up, clasping her against his chest. Both her hands were caught in his right, his left arm wrapped tightly around her waist.

"Did I not tell you?" Paresh strolled forward. "He feels no pain now. Truss him up all you like, he would still come back for more."

Nick tilted her head to try and look at his face. "Doctor, remember what we talked about? How she's nothing but a fat waste! Don't let this slug tell you what to do!"

"Put her in the cepter bonds." The Paresh moved behind the control panel.

The Doctor dragged Nick to two cuffs suspended from the ceiling. They weren't metal and were marked blue and white—completely different from the rest of the ship. She kicked and struggled the entire way. He managed to snap one shackle around her wrist and after more of her thrashing, the other snapped on as well.

"Good. Now get back." The Doctor obeyed the Paresh's orders, standing several feet away from Nick but not facing her. The cuffs allowed her to keep her hands comfortably at her side, which she found somewhat disturbing. She kept her eyes on the Doctor and jerked on the cords.

"Doctor! Wake up! Wake up! Doctor! Doctor!"

He only stared ahead, a statue, lost in his own body. How much of him was still his own?

"Give it up sweetheart." _Don't call me sweetheart, you old hag._ "He's going to be very busy building me a nuclear flash drive, and you, well, you won't be as busy. Instead, you get to be my new toy, as I told your Time Lord before snatching him up." Nick's stomach churned. "It's been so long since I've had a toy. The last one only survived 13. I wonder what you'll be able to take."

Nick glared at her, but not for long. "He'll hear me. He's a Time Lord. You can't just override a Time Lord's brain. Doctor! It's me! Wake up!

"That's it!" the Paresh snapped. "I'll not have you making an annoying ruckus while I work." She flipped a few switches. An unpleasant humming grew within the room. The Doctor still faced forward, emotionless, empty.

"Doctor, wake up! I know you're in there! Doctor!"

"Enough!" The Paresh spun a dial and power surged through the cepter cords, into the cuffs, and through Nick's body. She screamed, but only for a moment and out of surprise. It hurt, but not enough so she couldn't focus past it.

"Doctor! Wake up! _Wake up!_"

The Paresh spun the dial more and suddenly the pain tripled. Fire and lightening ripped at her muscles, sizzled over her skin. She was drowning, unable to breathe as all her breath left her in screams. It wouldn't stop! She couldn't stop screaming, but she needed help! She needed the Doctor! He had to stop her! He had to help!

"Doctor!" It was a shriek of desperation and determination. Desperate that he should hear her. Determined to undermine the Paresh's control. The dial turned again.

She jerked in her bonds, trying to escape the bone-burning agony, forcing the cuff edges into her wrists until they bled. Needles slithered under her skin. She needed more air, needed it to scream, the only release there was.

Far away, words were shouted. "You're up to 10 now, my dear! You've escalated much father than you should have, but if you don't stop that annoying pleading for him, it will only be worse!"

Then she had no energy left and fell to her knees, would have collapsed to the ground if the bonds hadn't kept her suspended. Tears streamed down her face as the pain faded. The Paresh had turned it off at long last, but how long had it really been on? Just a few minutes? She shivered, breathing in pained gasps, her eyes shut tight and tears pattering the floor.

"There now. All you had to do was be quiet. Was that so difficult?"

Nick choked on a little sob, but forced herself to regain her composure. This was no time to weaken. She was still alive—it had been pain, nothing more. The Doctor needed her help. She craned her neck to look up at him with blurry eyes. Nothing. He remained motionless. She tasted blood in her mouth and realized she must have bit her lip. It trickled down her shin. Shouting with pain and effort, she climbed to her feet and staggered a few steps toward him. The cepter cords didn't let her get too far, and she leaned forward, reaching out to him, digging the cuffs deeper into her wrists, but compared to the Paresh's inducement, it was nothing. More blood ran down her arms and dripped from her elbows.

"Doctor. Look at me. Babe, it's Nick. Look here. The Paresh has you in a mind lock. You said so. But I know you can break out of it. You're the Doctor, aren't you? Please—"

"That is enough!" The Paresh's face was wild. "You're a hard-headed thing, aren't you?"

Nicked turned to her, glaring, and bared her teeth. "Go suck a uranium rod."

"Let's see how you like 11!"

A shock of agony ripped through her and her legs buckled. She swung back, oblivious to everything but the knives in her skull, the peeling of her flesh. Spikes of pain drove themselves into her heart. Her nerves curled in on themselves, screamed and crawled, aflame. _I'm dying. I'm dying. Oh God, let it end. _Then a tiny part of her mind, so small and weak she barely heard it, said, _No, I must save him. I must live. He cannot be her slave forever. He cannot do things he isn't meant for._

Time ceased to exist. She began to accept the pain, repeated a mantra in her head,_ It could be worse, it could be worse, oh God, it could be worse._

Suddenly it was gone as fast as it had come. Hair clung to her sweat-dampened face, her head hung as she tried to breathe.

"That's enough of that. I don't' think you'll be talking for a while and I don't have time to play with you anymore. I must get my good Doctor here to the reactor room so he can begin his work. Don't fret though—I'll be back for you soon enough."

Nick spit blood onto the floor and watched the feet of the Doctor and the Paresh walk away. _Damn. Damn, damn. _Every time she said something, the Paresh tortured her. Not the Doctor was going somewhere she couldn't even appeal to him. How was she going to get free? It couldn't end like this—the Doctor creating planet explosives for the Paresh to use, with her stuck here, for further torture until she died of it. _Damn!_ She couldn't even move; her body shook from the trauma of the Paresh device. Her lip and wrists throbbed. Somehow, she had to break free. She had to trick the Paresh. She had to reach the Doctor. She had to stay alive. Had to stay alive. Had to save him. Had to wake him up. Had to stay alive.

She repeated those words to herself until the clip-clop of shoes on the rusted metal froze her thoughts solid.

"Now then. He's happily at work, so that gives me some quality time with you my dear. What do you say we start at 1 and work our way up this time, hm?"


	3. Chapter 3

Down the hall in the reactor room, the Doctor deftly worked on the nuclear flash drive, a small device with incredible destructive capabilities. But though his hands were hard at work, his eye registering what was happening, and much of his mind occupied with his task, a small, sealed part of his brain functioned as the Doctor.

He could hear Nick's cries, the sounds echoing through the hallway and reverberating through the room he worked in. She was being killed, slowly, but certainly. She had tried to free him from his mind prison, and while he wasn't fully in control, she had awoken the sealed part from its induced safeguard shutdown. He knew she would be able to do it. She'd managed to yell at him enough to snap it back into existence.

_Come on now,_ he said to himself, _most Time Lords wouldn't find a way out of a Paresh's mind lock but she managed to give you the idea and you've done it. All it'll take now is a bit of brain cell reorganization. Come on! Fight, fight! You've regenerated plenty of times, just think of this as maintenance work!_

As he fought to regain dominance over his brain cells, his body began to falter in its work. His hands slowed, lost their accuracy, slipped, and a piece of converter fell to the floor with a loud clang.

Nick's screams dropped suddenly, becoming pained, exhausted moans, as though she was trying to expel all her suffering through the sounds. The Doctor halted in his mental retake, knowing the Paresh would come to see what the noise was. Sure enough, she clopped into the room, ugly snarl on her face.

"What was that noise about?"

The Doctor stared at her with glazed eyes.

"Oh blast, I forget you can't speak anymore. She looked at the floor around him and spotted the converter. "Pick that up!" The Doctor obeyed. "Now be more careful and get back to work!"

The orders from the Paresh undid some of the Doctor's work and he fought to keep the control from seeping into his remaining unlocked consciousness. _Nick! Nikki! Say something! Please! Keep me alive! Save me so I can save you!_

"No more blunders, you hear!" The Paresh shook her fat fist at him.

_Nikki!_

"Leave him alone!" Nick ragged voice floated into the room. "_Doctor!_" She panted heavily—speaking had to be difficult from the nerve-cepter attacks. Still, he cheered her on, getting back some of his power. _Come on Nick! Stay strong! Stay alive!_

"Come back in here and let's see how I do on 4! I've already been up to 11 you deranged cow! Doctor! I'll be waiting for you in here! Just wake up!"

"Shut up!" Flecks of spittle flew out of the Paresh's mouth. "You little upstart sack of bones!"

"Doctor!" Nick yelled, his name raspy in her throat, and her anger for the Paresh evident. "Doctor! _Doctor! She doesn't have all of you! Doctor!_"

The Paresh snarled and thumped back into the other room.

_Hold on Nick!_ The Doctor redoubled his efforts even as his body and more of his mind went back to work.

Hours crawled by, every agonizing second spend rewriting his cells accompanied by intermittent patches of time when the Paresh tortured Nick, putting the dial higher and higher. Between sessions the Paresh let her recover her senses and checked in on the Doctor's progress. To his frustration, he's already completed a quarter of the work, adding to her already finished half. H knew it would be completed before he broke free of the Paresh's hold, but that could be dealt with later. He had to save Nick first.

Nick's world existed only of pain and no pain. Hope slowly slid away with each session, but her rage for the Paresh grew. This planet killer, this diseased slug feeding on everything beautiful. _If she ever takes these cuffs off me, I'm going to stuff my fist down her throat!_ Of course, Nick knew the Paresh would never let her out. She waned to believe the Doctor would save her, like he had on so many other occasions, but this time, it didn't look like it was going to happen. _I failed him._

At least the time between sessions was getting longer. She didn't fear the pain anymore. She was too exhausted and hurt too much to have room for anxiety.

"Doctor……Doctor……Doctor…"

"Shut up!"

She hadn't even realized she'd been saying anything. She couldn't remember what she was looking at, what she was hearing. Her world was impending death at the hands of a Paresh when they got to 13. _I trivialized her power to hold him too much._

"You know what? I'm tired of playing with you, and your insipid hope is disgusting."

Apparently 13 was now. Nick closed her eyes, more hot tears falling from them.

"When the Doctor wakes up," she said, her voice flat and dry like paper, "I hope he kills you."

_I hope. I hope he wakes up. Even if I am already gone._

The Paresh chuckled. "Let's see how long you last on 13."

Before Nick could speak, the Paresh spun the dial and an agony unlike anything she had experienced previously coursed through her body. There was no room to scream this time; her mind went blank at everything save the anguish. She only stared wide-eyed at the floor, her mouth gaping. It stretched until forever, a sea, an eternity of never-ending wounds.

When it finally stopped, every muscle in her body twitched and somewhere far, far away there was talking, but the words failed to make sense.

"Well, well, well, survived 13 have we? Hmm, you'll need a long time before I try 14 on you. …Are you still breathing?"

After a few moments Nick's body finally sucked in a few breaths of air, her lungs having almost shut down from the ordeal.

"Ah, good, you are. I was worried for a moment that I wouldn't get to try 14 on you. I've gotten some interesting results on 14. I once had someone rip their off hand off in their attempt to escape. Very entertaining, I must say."

_No…_Nick passed out.

"Hm. Resilient little rascal."

He could hear the Paresh speak as she walked toward him. "Perhaps she'll even outlive 14 and I'll get to try her on 15." She entered the room behind him, shuffled something. "Well you, have far along have you come?"

The Doctor held the finished nuclear flash drive out to his side. The Paresh giggled and snatched it up.

"I knew you'd get it done this quickly! Now I'll have you make another! Ooh! Or maybe I'll have you build a tonbon pressure explosive—it would be so much easier to blow up a sun rather than go planet by planet."

The Doctor turned to face her and for a few moments she didn't look at him. When she did, she saw that his eyes were no longer clouded. They were crystal clear—and raging mad.

She gasped and stepped back. A cepter clamp snapped up around her right ankle, anchoring her to the floor.

"You!" she sputtered. "But you—how could you? How did you?"

"Easy," he said in a dark, measured tone, "I cut off a part of my brain from the rest of my consciousness. Then she," he pointed down the hall, "woke it up and I rewrote all the cells you tampered with."

"You!" Spit dribbled from her mouth as rage worked its way out of her. "You! Youyouyouyou!"

She lunged for him and the Doctor bolted for the door, shutting and locking it with his screwdriver just as the Paresh broke the cepter clamp. She crashed into the door and pounded her fist on it. The Doctor sprinted down the hall and switched his screwdriver on the control panel the moment it was within range. A few seconds more and he was in the room, turning the screwdriver to a second frequency and aimed it at Nick's cepter bonds. He slipped under her as her left arm fell across his back.

"Come on, come on, come on! Be all right Nick, come on!"

He drove the moment he felt her mouth near his cheek. In another moment, warm air breezed over his skin. She was alive! Her other arm fell and he gathered her against his chest and picked her up. Partially congealed blood covered her wrists and arms and her eyes were closed, her brow slightly furrowed as though she was having a troublesome dream. She shivered in his arms. He looked down at her and blinked back tears.

"I'm sorry Nikki. I am so, so sorry." He rubbed his thumb over her shoulder.

Wrenching metal caught his attention and he looked up to see the Paresh charging toward them, nuclear flash driver still in hand. He didn't move.

"That flash drive won't work," he said. She halted a few feet in front of him.

"What do you mean? Why won't it work?" She eyed him suspiciously.

"Because it's set on a timer to go off in one minute. So technically, it will work—just not in the way you want."

She spoke through clenched teeth. "Then fix it."

"Can't. It's double-deadlocked and even I can't get through that."

The Paresh narrowed her eyes and seemed to study him for a moment. Then she swept to the side and slammed her hand on one of the control panel's buttons. A slim, golden shield materialized in front of her, reaching from wall to wall. She smirked at him.

"Too bad then. I suppose I'll just have to leave this one here. But I'll be safe in my secondary ship and you," she gave a little giggle, "why, you'll be stuck here because I'm sorry, that door blocking your ship is deadlocked. And even you can't get through that." She bared her teeth in a nasty sneer as she laughed.

"Yeah," he said, looking around at the shield. "That might work—if I hadn't released your ship from its moorings and taken control of your teleporter." He gave her a mirthless smile and tilted his head. "10 seconds on an old panel like that with a sonic screwdriver opens up all sorts of possibilities."

The Paresh began to huff and puff, her hands curling into fists and the skin she wore splitting open in a few places. The Doctor watched as her eyes turned golden and her voice began to rise into unintelligible words of rage. He pointed the screwdriver at the controls and activated it. Red light surrounded him and Nick as they faded to the deck where the TARDIS was, the Paresh screaming in fury behind them.


	4. Chapter 4

He settled Nick on the grating of the TARDIS floor and then leaped to the controls, pushing buttons and slamming the heel of his show into a lever

He settled Nick on the grating of the TARDIS floor and then leaped to the controls, pushing buttons and slamming the heel of his show into a lever. With the tell-tale whining-grinding sound, they were in motion, spinning backward in time to New New York where he knew Nick would receive the best medical treatment possible. He had to ignore that it would be from The Sisters of Plenitude and in a few years he would arrive with Rose to uncover their secrets and throw their whole system into disarray. He hammered a nearby panel and then felt certain the TARDIS was doing in the right direction and would stop at the right time.

He sat down and shuffled his body over to bring Nick's head and shoulders onto his lap. He stroked her hair with one hand, her shoulder with the other. Whatever dismay the torture had left on her, it was gone now. Her expression was one of complete sleep. The blank peacefulness that comes with a deep slumber.

"Never again," he said, his voice hard. Cepter-bond torture was bad, outlawed on every world he knew of that had encountered it. Had he known the Paresh had them, he would have come up with something different, formulated a new plan, any plan. Anything to keep Nick safe. No one deserved what she'd endured.

The TARDIS jarred to a halt and the Doctor picked her up once more, headed out and turned right around the corner of a white sheen building, automatic doors opening to a familiar scene.

"Need some help!" he barked at the strolling nurses. Suddenly they burst into a flurry of white uniforms. A stretcher rolled toward him and he placed Nick on it.

"Severe trauma due to cepter-bond torture," he said before they could ask. One of the Sisters stared at him in shock and horror. He ignored her.

"Where will you take her?" he asked.

"Level 5, Ward 52." The Sister rushed off after the stretcher, leaving the Doctor to stand alone in the lobby, gazing after her. There was nothing more he could do for her now. He'd be in the way, but waiting idle would drive him mad. He needed to talk to someone, and he knew who he wanted to see.

--

"Hello Boe."

With a low rumble as though he were just waking up, the Face of Boe opened his eyes to look at the person who spoke.

"Ah, Doctor. You are alone today, I see. Or is it you are here for another reason?" Boe spoke each word with effort, his age more than showing through. Still, the Doctor would tell Boe put energy into his question.

"Nikki," the Doctor said.

The corners of Boe's mouth crinkled. _Was he smiling?_ The Doctor thought of saying when he'd picked Nick up, but then realized it would betray to Boe everything about the future. But the way Boe only said, "Mmm" and blinked slowly showed the Doctor the truth. Boe already knew; he'd already worked out that Nick was after Martha, after Donna, after all of them.

"Nick for short. This one," was all the Doctor could say. His voice faded as he thought about her. _This one_. How many had there been? It wasn't true – she wasn't just "this one." Besides that, she had been with him the longest. She didn't show any signs of leaving either. Until now. He wouldn't be surprised if she decided to go home after this ordeal.

"What has happened?" Boe asked.

The Doctor sat, practically collapsing into a chair, and related the entire tale. Strange, it felt as though it had happened long ago, and yet it had only been minutes.

"Is she as strong as you believe?"

The Doctor stared at Boe, unblinking. "Yes." Then he hung his head. "Why is it that everywhere I go, death and destruction follow me?"

He said it soft enough that the question seemed more for him than for Boe.

"Why is it," said Boe, "that everywhere you go, people live, whereas without you, they would certainly die?"

This gave the Doctor pause and he looked up into the gigantic face. Then he sighed and shook his head, letting it drop again.

"Maybe I should just stop. Turn human. Die from old age. With her."

"Doctor," Boe said, no surprise in his voice. The Doctor looked at him again.

"I've never been with one person for so long. It's been longer than three years – what if her next trip is her last? What if I can't save her next time?"

"For you to dwell on the 'what ifs' in life…"

"I lose _everyone_," the Doctor grated. "They leave, they get killed, they get sucked into another dimension, and I'm always behind it! I'm always in the thick of it! I should put a bloody disclaimer on the TARDIS!" He swept his hand over an invisible sign; "Traveling with the Doctor can lead to torture and death!"

He slumped into his chair. Boe didn't say anything. The Doctor knew why. Boe knew the Doctor didn't really believe everything he said. He wasn't responsible for everything that he bumped into. Things just happened. He was angrier at himself than anything for dragging Nick along into a situation that no one should ever have to be in.

"Tell me about her," Boe said, coaxing the Doctor into a different discussion, leading his thoughts away from despair.

The Doctor already knew that Boe knew Nick. She'd met Jack Harkness already, but he wasn't going to say anything. Instead he just did what Boe asked.


	5. Chapter 5

The Doctor found Nick's room a few hours later. She was still resting peacefully, looking small in the thick warming comforter. He sat on the white stool that had been placed beside the bed for him. He wrung his hands a few times and stared at her pale face. He'd felt a little better after seeing Boe, but staring now at Nick's chalky skin brought the fear back into him. He'd brought her to this, just like he'd brought along so many others to pain and suffering. He'd made promises he could never keep and people died remembering them.

But he'd never damaged anyone this much before. Many deaths were preferable to cepter-bond torture. A strange, choked sound escaped him and he leaned over her to press his forehead to her temple and run his fingers over her cheek. Then he collected himself and sighed deeply before sitting back down. He wasn't leaving her again until she woke up.

Only a few minutes had passed when Nick's eyes suddenly fluttered open. A surge of excitement and relief ran through the Doctor. He leaned in closer and saw one of her hands sneak out from beneath the comforter and open, a request. He laid his hand in hers and felt her exhausted fingers curl around him.

"Nikki," he said, almost unable to get the words out, "I am so sorry."

"Stop apologizing," she said quietly.

He smiled at her and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. To his utter surprise and delight, she smiled back, a bright, wide grin that echoed the sun, as though she'd never been in pain at all. Maybe there would be no residual side effects. Maybe she was stronger than he'd ever thought and her body was already recovering.

Her face contorted as she tried to shifter her position and wriggle out of the comforter more.

"No, don't move," he warned, worried about what the motion might do.

"Ugh, I feel trapped under here," she muttered, ignoring him. Then she settled, her hand still holding his. "So," she brought out the smile again, "how long am I here for? And where is here?"

"As long as it takes to make sure the effects are truly out of your system," he said. He was about to explain further, but Nick slipped back into sleep once more. She still hadn't let go of him, but that was fine. He didn't want her to.

He watched her for a few more minutes when she suddenly jerked awake again. "Oh, my side..."

"What?" he asked, instantly alert.

"Nasty cramp. Ow." She began writhing beneath the covers. Her focus on him slipped away and her eyes closed, her peaceful expression switching to one of agony as she twisted soundlessly, arching her back and her hand releasing his.

The Sisters rushed over, shouting things to each other and shoving the Doctor out of the way.

"Residual psychotic effects surfacing!" one yelled. "We need to stabilize!"

"Blood pressure rising!"

"Mind integrity is failing! She's going to collapse if we can't calm her!"

He felt helpless just standing there. The Sisters were having a hard time getting Nick under control. Why? _Why?_ Suddenly he knew – cepter-bond torture was outlawed for so long and for so far in the universe they didn't quite know how to handle it. They only worked on cures and tested immunizations. Nick's subconscious mind couldn't let go of what it had experienced. Too much pain had been brought into her system and she'd managed to stow it away to stay lucid for him, but now it was escaping into her consciousness, like an overflowing river. It was as though she were in the bonds again, and would be until the subconscious was level again, but this time she had less of a defense. He was safe from harm and her body and mind were already beyond exhausted. She needed a release, some way to siphon off the suppressed suffering. The Sisters didn't have an answer for that.

He leaped forward. She'd once taken away his nightmares for him, taken them into herself so he could sleep peacefully. He could repay the favor if it saved her life. He pushed the Sisters aside and grabbed Nick's face in both hands and pressed his forehead to hers, opening the telepathic channel. He simultaneously took in her memories while allowing beautiful memories of his to flood into her. Azure oceans with pure white beaches, miles of orchards with fuzzy pink Kasha fruit, forests filled with vibrant wildflowers and chirping birds, the blazing sky of Gallifrey and the Citadel. In turn he felt the pain, the stabbing, cutting, burning, breaking, inside out misery. The Sisters protested and tried to pull him away, but he shook them off.

"Leave me alone, I can save her!" He would. By God, this time he would. He'd been with her for too long, put her through too much, he wasn't letting her go just as she didn't let him go. Faintly, somewhere far away, he felt hands holding his face.

"Mental integrity stabilizing," one of the Sisters announced, sounding astonished by what she'd just witnessed.

Everything ended. The pain, the memories; the door was shut. _She shut it_, he realized vaguely. Exhausted, he opened his eyes and realized his face was wet. Tears? Nick stared back at him, looking stronger and more color in her face than he'd seen in the past several hours. It felt like days. She smiled – she knew exactly what he had done. In one motion she had her arms around him in a tight hug. He hugged her back, thankful to have someone to hang onto, thankful his idea had worked, thankful that he knew she would be okay.

--

Nick awoke later and breathed deeply. She felt like Sleeping Beauty; as though she'd been asleep for years and years. It had been so deep, she was now renewed and awake and maybe even more beautiful than ever. She pulled the snowy white comforter over her mouth and stifled a giggle. Everything was so bright and clean and she felt fantastic. She turned her head to the right and saw the Doctor sleeping in a bed beside hers. She pulled herself into a sitting position to better watch him. The prince that had saved her. Exhausted from slaying the dragon. Too many dragons, in fact. How often did he get a comfortable bed to just sleep the time away in?

Pictures of incredible beaches and purples skies and fields of golden grass flashed through her mind. Suddenly she had too much energy and climbed out of bed. It would probably look absurd, but she didn't care. Today was a new and glorious day. Fresh and vibrant, she began to dance. Old ballet lessons returned to her and she did some pirouettes. _It feels so good to move again!_ Her muscles were still sore, but even they were glad for the stretch, something graceful and even.

It was only when she had tilted back, her arms in the air, did she get an upside-down view of the Doctor, awake and sitting up, watching her with his goofy grin. She laughed and straightened.

"Dancing?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in amused interest.

"I used to take ballet." Nick clasped her hands behind her, feeling silly. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine," he said half dismissively. His gaze focused on her. "You?"

"Alive. Thanks to you."

They fell silent for a while and slowly the Doctor's expression turned to one of seriousness.

"Look, Nick." He paused. "If...you want to go home, I'll...I'll take you back home."

She stared at him for a time before finally speaking. "Why would I go home?"

He fidgeted. "Well..."

"Because of what happened? You think I'd leave you after that?" She laughed softly and shook her head. "What do I have to go back to, Doctor? I wander the Earth, just like you wander space and time. You think nothing bad happens on Earth? You think some nutcase couldn't kidnap me down there? No, Doctor, I'm staying right here with you. And if anything ever were to happen to me, then on the other side I'd at least be able to say, 'I died by the Doctor's side seeing amazing things.' No one else would be able to say that."

The Doctor cut his eyes to the right, as though what she'd said wasn't entirely true. _But I don't care,_ she thought. She waited until he looked at her again and held his eyes with hers.

"I'm not leaving you."

Several more minutes passed before a smile appeared on his face. "Then please," he said, gesturing for her to continue dancing. "Don't let me stop you."

She laughed a little and rocked on her heels. "It would be more fun with a partner."

She didn't expect him to take up her offer and was surprised when he jumped out of the bed and took her up in his arms, as though planning to waltz.

"I don't know ballet though," he said.

"That's fine with me," she said, beaming at him.

She squealed as he dipped her.


End file.
